It appears that Alex Gonzalez will be our Opening Day starter at shortstop. He may not be a highly productive hitter, but he's excellent defensively, and that will be a bigtime upgrade over Rent-A-Error from last year. We've dealt with guys who are great defensively before who were less than productive at the plate (ie: Bellhorn, Olerud, Mientkiewicz), and that always panned out pretty well for us given we have so many other great hitters. Thinking of our infield lineup late in a game gives me goosebumps:
Lowell at 3rd
Gonzalez at Short
Loretta at 2nd
Snow at 1st
That's pretty ballsy. That's some serious defense. Normally I don't get excited about defense, but sometimes its all you can get excited about when it comes to signing certain players that are there to fill holes. The deal will supposedly be only a 1 year, $3 million contract, which is great for when we want to bring Dustin Pedroia up and move him back to short where he has played most of his life.
Overall, I think it's great for the team to have our team intact right now. We can move Wells now and go after a 1B prospect or something we don't need now and can develop. That would be a decent move I think. Any numbers Alex gives us are a bonus as far as I am concerned, and perhaps Fenway will be a bit friendlier to him than Florida has been. We shall see soon enough.
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